Spectrum/Womanspirit Art Gallery & Resource Centre
Organization profile published 1986

Year Published:  1986
Resource Type:  Organization
Cx Number:  CX3048

Abstract: 
SPECTRUM/WOMANSPIRIT was founded in 1978 and the gallery was opened in 1980. A year later, two small rooms were designated as the SPECTRUM ART GALLERY for exhibitions of women's art. The centre is entirely run by volunteers, with no funding from outside sources, except for occasional special projects, grants.

The original mandate was to promote women's work in all fields of art, to act as a source of information, a base of operations and an approachable point of entry for women artists apprehensive about approaching mainstream galleries. Now the focus is mainly on the visual arts, and is offered to male artists whose work is non-exist and/or reflects changing sex roles and social attitudes towards women artisits has inculded, for example, the arbitrary dividiosn between (male ) art and (female) crafts, mainstream galleries and the art-viewing public have since tended to recognize women's contributions to art and society.

SPECTRUM/WOMANSPIRIT has an extensive slide registry on mainly contemporary women artists in Canada and the U.S.; slides are available on loan for research. The Centre also has complied an Art Marketing Kit for women artists, available in photocopied form for $3. the gallery has performances and poetry readings, a resource library and a quaterly journal Spirale. It also sponsors research, such as on the stauts of women artists in Canada.

Membership fees are $10 for sstudent/artists, $25 for sustaining; $30 for matronizing/patronizing.

This organization no longer exists.
This abstract was published in the Connexions Digest in 1986.